"Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad."
- Salvador Dal¡

Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.
- Pablo Picasso

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Christopher Moeller

Christopher Moeller is an illustrator and comics artist who is one of the foremost proponents of fully-painted comics art. Rather than the traditional um… lines and colors format, each panel is a painted image. Many painted-comics artists use watercolor (see my post about Alex Ross), but Moeller uses an opaque medium (it looks like acrylic or possibly gouache). There are only a handful of artists who can really make this work and Moeller is superb at it.

Moeller has done a number of painted comics stories, numerous comic book covers as well as illustrations for games, gaming cards and posters. There is checklist of his work (from 1991-2003) on the site. There are also prints and original art available.

In the late 90’s he illustrated (and wrote, or co-wrote with Kevin Moeller) an extended painted-comics science fiction series that builds on his interest in military history to create a rich setting for stories of interstellar conflict and intrigue. The stories have been collected in two graphic novels: Iron Empires Volume 1: Faith Conquers and Iron Empires Volume 2: Sheva’s War. There is a site devoted to the series, but it’s still incomplete. There is a preview of Volume 1 and Volume 2 on the Dark Horse Comics site.

DC comics has just released Book One of a two-issue superhero/sci-fi series, written and painted by Moeller: JLA Classified: Cold Steel.

I did not get a chance to stop by a comic shop because of work. Can you tell me WHAT IS THAT on the end panel? I don’t want to get cataracts from squinting. Can’t enlarge the photo. What it is? A ship? What the hell is it? It looks cool but I don’t know what it is. It looks like it is hovering above a body of water. It looks KEWL though!